Horsa, with ourselves, what do we find? Why, the restless activity, the impatience of control, and the practical faculty which distinguish the Yankee, are precisely what the German lacks. Yet we need not go far to find these traits again, only across the Baltic, not, indeed, in any great development nowadays, for reasons which it would take us too long to touch upon here, but strikingly characteristic of the old Norsemen. One of the most prominent features of the New England character is a talent for maritime affairs. The New Englander is born with a love for the ocean and an intuitive skill in navigation. The novelist Seatsfield has made use of this trait in one of his stories, where an American, being in a boat exposed to danger in a sudden storm on one of the Swiss lakes, astonishes his German companions by assuming the command and bringing them to shore in safety. This talent we find prominent, also, in the Scandinavians, particularly those of former times, but not at all with the Germans. Even now you find Swedish and Danish sailors scattered all over the world, but who ever saw a German sailor? The Hollanders, indeed, impelled by the all-powerful spirit of traffic, do carry on an extensive commerce; but their vessels are mere warehouses afloat, they are driven to sea by the necessity of the case, and do not take to it with any gusto or good will. England is now a great maritime power. But when England was Saxon it had no sailors and no fleet. King Alfred had to work hard to get up a coast-guard to keep off the Norsemen. Ships he could build, but for seamen to work them he had to employ "pirates" no doubt another swarm from the same hive. Some time after this, though of uncertain date, we find a law of the Anglo-Saxons, that "any merchant who fared thrice over the high sea in his own craft was thenceforth of thaneright worthy;" that is, he was raised to the nobility in reward. But the Norsemen needed no such bribe. Long before that they had circumnavigated Europe from the White Sea to the Black. Their discovery of the Faroes is of unknown antiquity. These islands, which are four hundred miles from the coast of Norway, have never had any but a Norse name, the signification of which would seem to indicate, that at the remote period when they first appear in history, and when they had no regular inhabitants, they were used as depots of provisions for the wandering voyagers.

*Færeyar, that is, "sheep-islands.'

About the year 860, a seafarer, named Gardar, was unexpectedly driven on to the shores of Iceland; and within a year or two, and without any concert with Gardar, another Norseman, named Naddodd, took shelter there under similar circumstances. Now Iceland lies, at a rough calculation, about six hundred miles to the westward of Norway. Yet, within sixty years after its discovery, the population seems to have reached about its present number, namely, 50,000, principally by direct immigration from Norway. At one time this immigration was so great, that Harald the Fair-haired, fearing a depopulation of his kingdom, forbade any one to leave it without permission, under penalty of a fine of five ounces of silver. More than forty years before, one Gunnbiörn had already discovered the cliffs off the east coast of Greenland, about two hundred miles to the westward of Iceland. Towards the end of the tenth century, Eirek the Red established a colony in Greenland.

It is true, in most or all of these instances the discoverers had been driven out of their course by storms. Yet they must have been somewhere in the neighbourhood of the shores on which they were driven. And the facility with which the passage direct to Iceland and afterwards to Greenland was made shows that voyages of such extent were already familiar to them. Now, if we consider that in these voyages they did not merely coast along the shore, where there might be a chance of shelter in case of need, like the Phoenicians, but pushed boldly out into the restless North Atlantic in their undecked boats, without even the aid of the compass, we must acknowledge that for pure daring the exploits of these Norse sailors are even yet unequalled.

This habit of making long voyages is shown also in many provisions of the ancient Icelandic code, the "Gray Goose,' which was reduced to writing from ancient oral tradition, in the beginning of the twelfth century. In a special chapter, "Of Naval Affairs," provisions are made for taking the testimony of witnesses about to depart "in the floating fir" (a fliotandi furo); for harbor duties; for general average in case of jettison; concerning the mutual rights and duties of shipowners and charterers, of sailors and skippers, of tenants in common of ships. Among other things, every householder who kept any servants was bound to assist, once a year, with all his retinue except his shepherd, in launching or hauling up any vessel. Like the inhabitants of the New England coast,

the sterility of the land affording no scope for their energetic disposition, they became of necessity a seafaring nation.

The particular exploit which forms the subject of the works at the head of this article is probably no novelty to any of our readers, yet, as it has been discredited by influential writers, and as those who have admitted the authority of the account have drawn some conclusions from it which we shall feel obliged to criticize, we place before them, nearly entire, the more important documents in this case. The perusal must, we think, produce the conviction of their genuineness in the mind of any unprejudiced person. The skepticism above alluded to is not, indeed, of much importance, since it is not shared, we believe, by any writer qualified to pronounce a critical opinion on the matter. It rests, no doubt, mainly on a vague notion of the antecedent improbability of so extensive a voyage having been made at that early period and with such imperfect means. But a moment's consideration of the

facts above stated will show how unfounded such a notion is. The Norsemen had already been, for more than a century, in the habit of making voyages direct from Norway to Iceland, if not direct to Greenland, (since we hear of arrivals in the Greenland colony "from Norway"). At all events, they could have touched only at Iceland. The colony on the west coast of Greenland consisted at that time of above one hundred and thirty farms. Probably it had already reached its most populous state. Now the distance across Davis' Strait, even at its mouth, is only about the same as from Norway to Iceland. But if we take it somewhat to the southward of Disco, (which we know the ancient colonists reached, and even went further north,) it is not more than two hundred miles. Greenland evidently belongs much more to the New World than to the Old; and if we take into consideration the southerly current flowing out of Davis' Strait along the Labrador coast; the prevalence of northerly winds in those regions; and above all, the fact that the voyagers to Greenland had occasion to run so far to the westward in order to reach that colony, whereas there was before nothing to attract them to cruise in that direction; it was much more probable, a priori, that some of them, missing the point of Cape Farewell, or driven off to sea in their northern explorations of Baffin's Bay, should reach the coast of Labrador, than that they should have discovered Greenland. It would be singular, indeed, if these bold ad

venturers, whose dwelling, as Tacitus said even in his time, seemed to be the ocean, had missed the discovery of an extensive continent comparatively close at hand.

Such are the antecedent probabilities. In this position of things, the internal evidence of the documents themselves would seem, as we said, sufficient to convince any unprejudiced person of the correctness of the main facts they assert. It may be interesting, besides, to have in convenient compass the earliest fragment of history relating to this country, and this may serve at the same time as an illustration of what was said concerning the sea-faring talent of the Scandinavians, and as a specimen of their exploits.

The following translations are taken from the Thattr Eireks rauda and the Graenlendinga thatt ("the piece about Eirek the Red" and "the piece about the Greenlanders"), which are presented here nearly entire. These pieces are fragments. which have been interpolated into a Life of King Olaf Tryggvason, The manuscripts are of the end of the 14th century, (1387-1395,) but the style and other evidences show them to be copies from much older ones.

It seems that among a large number of Icelanders who accompanied Eirek the Red, (who was the first to make a voyage to Greenland, after its discovery by Gunnbiörn,) was one Herjulf, whose son Biarni, a merchant, had been in the habit of passing every other winter at home with his father, and then sailing again on distant voyages.

"That same summer (985 or 986) came Biarni with his ship to Eyrar, in the spring of which his father had sailed from the island. These tidings seemed to Biarni weighty, and he would not unload his ship. Then asked his sailors what he meant to do, he answered that he meant to hold to his wont and winter with his father, and I will bear for Greenland if you will follow me thither.' All said they would do as he wished. Then said Biarni, Imprudent they will think our voyage, since none of us has been in the Greenland sea.'

"Yet they bore out to sea as soon as they were boun,* and sailed three days till the land was sunk, then the fair wind fell off and there arose north winds and fogs, and they knew not whither they fared, and so it went for many days. After that they saw the sun, and could then get their bearings. Then they hoisted sail and sailed that day before they saw land, and they counselled with themselves what land that might be. But Biarni said he

* Or bound, (búnir); namely, ready, as we say a ship is bound for London.

thought it could not be Greenland. They asked him whether he would sail to the land or not. This is my counsel, to sail nigh to the land,' (said he); and so they did, and soon saw that the land was without fells, and wooded, and small heights on the land, and they left the land to larboard, and let the foot of the sail look towards land. After that they sailed two days before they saw another land. They asked if Biarni thought this was Greenland. He said he thought it no more Greenland than the first; 'for the glaciers are very huge, as they say, in Greenland.' They soon neared the land, and saw it was flat land and overgrown with wood. Then the fair wind fell. Then the sailors said that it seemed prudent to them to land there. But Biarni would not. They thought they needed both wood and water. Of neither are you in want,' said Biarni; but he got some hard speeches for that from his sailors. He bade them hoist sail, and so they did, and they turned the bows from the land and sailed out to sea with a west-southwest wind three days, and saw a third land; but that land was high, mountainous, and covered with glaciers. They asked then if Biarni would put ashore there, but he said he would not; 'for this land seems to me not very promising' They did not lower their sails, but held on along this land, and saw that it was an island; but they turned the stern to the land, and sailed seawards with the same fair wind. But the wind rose, and Biarni bade them shorten sail and not to carry more than their ship and tackle would bear. They sailed now four days, then saw they land the fourth. Then they asked Biarni whether he thought that was Greenland or not. Biarni answered, That is likest to what is said to me of Greenland, and we will put ashore.' So they did, and landed under a certain ness (cape), at evening of the day. And there was a boat at the ness, and there lived Herjulf, the father of Biarni, on this ness, and from him has the ness taken its name, and is since called Herjulfsness. Now fared Biarni to his father, and gave up sailing, and was with his father whilst Herjulf lived; and afterwards lived there after his father."

Eirek the Red, the leader of the colony, was still looked upon as its head, and Biarni once having paid him a visit, and being well received, the conversation fell upon his adventures and his discoveries of unknown lands. All thought Biarni had shown very little curiosity in not making further explorations. There was much talk about voyages of discovery, and Leif, the eldest of Eirek's three sons, resolved to see this newly-discovered country. Accordingly he paid Biarni a visit, bought his vessel of him, and engaged a crew.

* Ok letu skaut horfa á land.